Seeing your own body reduces pain caused by laser

In a paper in Journal of Neuroscience by Longo et al,[1] from by Patrick Haggard’s group (in case you didn’t know, Haggard is a very big wig in the whole sensory processing/body image stuff), they describe an experiment that I reckon is cool: they used painful laser stimuli and compared pain evoked when supposedly normal healthy volunteers (see our post on “How normal are the people who participate in experiments?‘) looked at the arm that was stimulated, looked at the opposite arm in a mirror, looked at someone else’s arm, looked at the reflection of something else. They reported that pain is less when you can see your own arm, or the reflection of your opposite one, than if you can’t. They also reported reduction of the N2/P2 wave within the laser-evoked cortical potential. The N2/P2 reflects almost entirely supramodal processing rather than the somatosensory specific aspects. The very impressive Giandomenico Iannetti and Andre Mouraux have done some great experiments on the interpretation of the N2/P2 component of cortical evoked potentials, for example here: Iannetti GD, Hughes NP, Lee MC, Mouraux A. Determinants of laser-evoked EEG responses: Pain perception or stimulus saliency? Journal of Neurophysiology 2008;100(2):815-828.

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It would be interesting to know whether these findings have any potential in the field of pain management for those suffering from chronic pain or whether it only works in the case of external stimulation.

Lorimer is coming to York!

In this first course in the UK for several years, Lorimer will lead you through his 'highlights of pain' tour, visiting the conceptual underpinnings of modern pain rehabilitation, cutting edge pain-related cognitive and clinical neuroscience, critical pain-related thinking, clinical reasoning and treatment principles.

From Painful Yarns, to Explaining Pain Better, to Biologically Based Graded Exposure, the Cortical Body Matrix and the Imprecision Hypothesis, it will be intense, but it will also be scientifically sound, evidence based, clinically applicable and fun!
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for probably the best little pain meeting in the world - PainAdelaide 2015, March 30th 2015, at the Adelaide Convention Centre.

Prof Bob Coghill, a world leader on the neurophysiology and neuroimaging of pain, including mindfulness and mediation effects, section editor for the poshest journal in our field - PAIN.Prof Glen King, one of the most important molecular scientists in the country, Glenn does fascinating work extracting venoms from spiders, scorpions and the like and using them to develop novel drugs to treat chronic pain. He has a habit of publishing in very posh journals and is a fabulous presenter.Prof Peter O’Sullivan, one of the planet’s most innovative and enthusiastic clinical scientists, consistently ranked by Expertscape in the top 10 low back pain researchers on the planet. Peter will share his immense clinical insights and research discoveries.A/Prof Stuart Brierley, a world authority on inflammation and the gut and at the forefront of innovative interdisciplinary methods to develop new treatments for inflammatory bowel syndrome.Prof Kevin Vowles, one of the leading experts internationally on the application of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to the management of people in pain.Dr Jim Hearn, scriptwriter and chef, author of the acclaimed High Season, an account of his painful journey into and out of heroin addiction - 2015’s Left-field presenter..Register here

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Call for abstracts and scholarship applications

The IASP’s Pain, Mind and Movement SIG and South African chapter will host a congress from 22-24 May 2015, in Johannesburg, South Africa. See the Pain Congress for details and to submit an abstract by 27 March 2015, and see this document for the details of two scholarships being offered by the Pain, Mind and Movement SIG (applications close on February 28th).

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Young scientists from all countries at the PhD or post-doc levels (or equivalent) in all fields of pain science and pain medicine are encouraged to apply to attend the European Pain School 2015.
The deadline is February 6 for the IASP-sponsored educational program, which runs June 7-14 in Siena, Italy.

Awareness of our physical ability is critically important when we decide on what actions to take. Can I reach that far?, Can I walk on that path?, Can I step that high? This is particularly important for older people whose physical function declines with age and who are at increased risk of falls (Lord et […]

Siobhan Moylan, a science and media communicator at Neuroscience Research Australia, recently conducted this insightful interview with Professor Simon Gandevia. In the interview, Professor Gandevia talks at length about motor impairment, which is the focus of a recent NHMRC Program Grant entitled ‘Motor Impairment: basic and applied human neurophysiology’. The post Interview with Professor […]

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